The latest sci-fi first-person shooter from German developer Crytek is an interactive action flick with some compelling subtext about the nature of a global energy crisis.

While the main thrust of “Crysis 3” is a climactic wrap-up of the trilogy that started in 2007, the game's sub-plot deals with a shadowy global paramilitary group that uses low-cost energy to enslave the world.

In “Crysis 3,” players take on the role of a super soldier empowered by alien technology as he both battles the remnants of an alien invasion and fights to topple the corrupt Cell Corp. But if a player listens closely, he'll also discover details about Cell's rise to power through its use of sustainable energy.

While playing through the first four levels of the game, I couldn't help but notice unexplained references to debt slaves, so I reached out to “Crysis 3's” lead writer for a bit of explanation.

In the 24 years that passed between the second and third game, the Cell Corp. has encased New York City in a mammoth dome, turning the city into a literal urban jungle and giving the company a chance to scavenge for alien “Ceph” technology.

“By finding a way to draw immense power from an alien artifact, Cell sold the world a vision of plentiful, clean energy for all,” said “Crysis 3” lead writer Steven Hall. “But the reality was very different.”

Because the artifact allowed Cell to generate free energy, they were able to sell it very cheaply. Once they had established a global monopoly on energy, Cell was able to dominate the financial markets and “got busy buying up personal and national debt and every government contract going,” Hall said. “By 2047, they run pretty much everything. Governments are in their pockets.”

With the world on lock-down, Cell began boosting the costs of its energy. People who can't pay become “debt slaves,” forced into what Cell refers to as the Work Away Debt Scheme.

While the details of this aren't fully explored in the overt shooting, stalking and running aspects of the game, Hall says it provides important context to “Crysis 3.”

“At heart, the whole story is all about power in its many guises — having it and not having it, what it means, what it costs, uses and abuses,” he said. “Cell's use of alien power is the backdrop and the opening scenario.”

The most obvious storyline in “Crysis 3,” though, is protagonist super-solider Prophet and his relationship with the power he obtains through an alien-infused “nanosuit.”

“So, the personal story and the wider conflicts in the world mirror each other, and ask similar questions,” Hall said. “A big part of playing 'Crysis' has always been about managing power, how best to use the suit, so we wanted to grow that theme out into the story of the characters and the world.”

Hall says the decision to extend the story about the costs of personal power onto a global stage was in part spurred by the very real concerns at play in the world right now about an overreliance on fossil fuels.

“A lot of people are angry right now with the various fat cats who seem to be able to do whatever they please while the rest of the world suffers for their actions,” he said. “I think we all wanted to put people like that in Prophet's sights.”

The fast-paced nature of the game means it's hard to slow down to discuss the dangers of a looming energy crisis, but the context adds an important weight to the fiction.

“As a writer, you want to make the world as real and solid as possible, but sometimes the best way to do that is not to hammer every aspect of the story — just let the player feel it, soak it in by osmosis,” Hall said. “I always feel that when the world and the characters feel solid, the stakes are so much higher.”

“Crysis 3” also has to bring together the loose threads of the earlier games from the series to, hopefully, conclude what at one time was an overly complex story line. That's something Hall is convinced this latest game will do.